Thread by @Jessicae13Eaton

*Trigger warning for graphic content of injury to women via rape*

This article is so important to me. I was raped 2 days after giving birth (at 17yo) which ripped open 47 stitches & caused very serious injuries.

This is much more common than we think

news.com.au/lifestyle/real…

However, I wholly disagree that this issue of men raping women shortly after childbirth will be resolved by educating partners on why women can’t have sex after giving birth. All of these women were raped by men who couldn’t give a fuck about them. This isn’t lack of education.

We have a very serious misunderstanding of rape and sexual violence towards women if we believe that educating men would stop a rapist from holding a woman down after she’s given birth and taking what he feels entitled to

I knew lots of women and girls who were forced into sex, guilt tripped or pressured into sex after childbirth and the concept of a man thinking ‘well it doesn’t matter, I want sex and she should give it to me’ makes me feel sick. I knew one woman raped in the post natal ward.

To me, the issue of men raping their partners shortly after childbirth is about entitlement to her body. That value CANNOT be undone with a session on DV with a midwife.
This is the society men have created for themselves and for women. The feeling that they are entitled to sex.

We have got to get our heads out of the clouds with issues around rape of women - this is not occurring because men need some education or didn’t know any better.
Rape is the active decision to penetrate her body when she doesn’t want you to, knowing she doesn’t want you to.

However, what this article has done is added a study to my list that victimfocus will invest in and commission free resources for women and girls.

I’m not letting this one slide. The answer to this is not just men having an hour session on DV.